Two years after Alabama said hello to Nick Saban (left), Tennessee said good-bye to Phillip Fulmer.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - You have to hand it to Darrington Sentimore, and not in the way that Chance Warmack and friends will attempt Saturday night in Neyland Stadium.

Sentimore has managed to accomplish something that Tyler Bray, Justin Hunter, Derek Dooley and others have failed to do.

He’s turned the Third Saturday in October into something more than just another Saturday in October.

He’s single-handedly made the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry a rivalry again.

At least until the game kicks off.

Sentimore, of course, is the former Alabama defensive lineman who left there and went to a junior college before landing at Tennessee. He can’t wait to get a shot at Nick Saban, and he didn’t mind telling the world.

"I like him, but I wasn't wanting to be under him," Sentimore said. "I just wouldn't rather be under him. With some players, he'll see you in the hallway and he'll just walk right past you like he doesn't see you. I don't like stuff like that."

Those cracks won’t have a thing to do with the final score, but anyone who cares about the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, who remembers it when it was a rivalry, has to like stuff like this for one reason.

The Alabama-Tennessee series has become a joke with no punch line, a corpse in search of a coffin. a rumble strip masquerading as a speed bump on Alabama’s annual run toward national championship contention.

It’s not just that the Crimson Tide has won the last five games against the Vols, which, not coincidentally, is every game since Saban got to Tuscaloosa. This series has long run in cycles and lived on revolving winning streaks.

But Saban, energy vampire that he is, has managed to suck the juice out of the Big Orange. For people in search of drama and intensity, four of his five meetings with the Vols have been sure cures for insomnia. Look at the lopsided scores.

2007: Alabama 41-17.

2008: Alabama 29-9.

2010: Alabama 41-10.

2011: Alabama 37-6.

There was the 12-10 aberration in 2009, which means the only Vols to display any real fight against the Crimson Tide in the last five years have been Sentimore and Lane Kiffin.

Look. One defensive lineman, even one as active and disruptive as Sentimore, isn’t going to change the balance of power here, but give him credit. No Vol has made this kind of noise in this series since Peyton Manning led the band at Legion Field.

Speaking of Manning, he’s on a bye week with the Denver Broncos, which will allow him to join some other old Vols in the house Saturday to honor Phillip Fulmer on his impending induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. So at least someone will be there in orange who knows what it’s like to beat Alabama.

Choosing this game to recognize Fulmer shows that someone at Tennessee has a keen sense of history and a wicked sense of humor. No coach, current or former, is held in more universal contempt by the Alabama fan base. Not Tommy Tuberville. Not Les Miles. Not even Dennis Franchione.

There are two reasons:

1. Fulmer ratted out Alabama to the NCAA.

2. Fulmer beat Alabama. A bunch.

Nice of Tennessee AD Dave Hart to try to put a spark in the old rivalry he knows so well and holds so dear by trotting out a human lightning rod in Fulmer. It would be even nicer if the game itself were an actual competition for more than a half.

Until then - and don’t hold your breath - it’s obvious the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry has a fever. And the only prescription is more Darrington Sentimore.

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